Alexa, Announce Announcements

Together with Amazon, we're continually working to bring new features and services to Alexa on Sonos. With a cloud update rolling out today for the US, UK, and CA, Amazon Alexa announcements are coming to Sonos One and Sonos Beam.

To make an announcement, say "Alexa, announce" followed by your announcement. You can also say "Alexa, broadcast" or "Alexa, tell everyone."

"Alexa, announce that dinner is ready."
"Alexa, broadcast the midnight dance party is beginning."
"Alexa, tell everyone that the car is leaving in 5 minutes."

You'll hear a short chime and then your announcement will play in your voice on all of your household Sonos One, Beam, and compatible Alexa-enabled devices, like a one-way intercom. You can send an announcement from Alexa-enabled devices – including One or Beam – as well as from the Alexa App on Android and iOS devices.

To exclude a specific device from receiving announcements, set the device to Do Not Disturb. The device can still send announcements, but won't play them.

You can also turn off both inbound and outbound announcements per device in the Settings of your Alexa App.

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32 replies

Is it possible to next have Sonos Alexa devices added to Alexa-Enabled Smart Groups too please? That will then allow a user to turn on/off lights or plugs etc; that are just associated/linked together in a group.

It means I will then be able to walk into the 'dining room' at home for example and say to my Beam: “Alexa turn on the lights” and just the lights in that one room will turn on. It works with Amazon devices only at the moment, but it would be useful if Amazon were to share that useful feature with Sonos.

Hey chicks, there are lots of features and skills all being worked on at the same time, this one was ready to go and we wanted to bring it to everyone. You'll see more features added pretty regularly, and we'll make sure to update you as they come.

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Simple Radio, The Jazz Groove, Radio.com, Radio Paradise, and hundreds of skills are still not working, and announcements was their priority!?

I have no idea what the dev priority list looks like, or what the dev efforts look like, but it wouldn't surprise me if the is a case of 'low hanging fruit'.

@Ryan, can you use a target with the announcement? For example "Alexa, announce to Samantha's room, you need to clean up your room'. I'm guessing not, since it would be difficult to tell between target and message.

@Ryan, can you use a target with the announcement? For example "Alexa, announce to Samantha's room, you need to clean up your room'. I'm guessing not, since it would be difficult to tell between target and message.

No, the Announcement feature will play on all of the Alexa enabled devices that support it at the same time, no targeting involved. You can disable it in certain rooms by turning on the Do Not Disturb feature if you need some of your devices not to call out.

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Is it possible to next have Sonos Alexa devices added to Alexa-Enabled Smart Groups too please? That will then allow a user to turn on/off lights or plugs etc; that are just associated/linked together in a group.

It means I will then be able to walk into the 'dining room' at home for example and say to my Beam: “Alexa turn on the lights” and just the lights in that one room will turn on. It works with Amazon devices only at the moment, but it would be useful if Amazon were to share that useful feature with Sonos.

YESSSSS! I lamented the loss of this great feature when I upgraded from a standalone Echo speaker to a Sonos Beam in my living room. Every other room has an actual Echo (Dot, Spot, or Show) and they all allow me to just say "turn on the lights" and only that room's lights turn on. Only in the living room, now that I have a Beam instead, do I have to say the whole "turn on the lights in the living room" ... like a caveman. I really would love for it to work the way it did before for me, with the Sonos Beam being allowed to be added to an Alexa-Enabled Smart Group for that room. Pretty please? It's annoying enough that I'm considering turning Alexa off on the Beam and using an Echo Dot instead. And that's a bummer.

You can target an individual room or echo device with the Alexa 'drop in' feature, but that’s obviously not part of this ... er... announcements package. Maybe that will be included on Sonos later, perhaps?

Glad to see someone agrees with me on 'Alexa Enabled Groups,. I lost the feature too when I moved my 'dot' out the dining room, replacing it with a Beam. However the Beam has completely altered our family dining experience, when I share the small half of a tough 'rump' steak and a few cold beans, with my wife, in the dark ... ha ha

You can target an individual room or echo device with the Alexa 'drop in' feature, but that’s obviously not part of this ... er... announcements package. Maybe that will be included on Sonos later, perhaps?

Maybe... perhaps... I'll pass along the interest for you.

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You can target an individual room or echo device with the Alexa 'drop in' feature, but that’s obviously not part of this ... er... announcements package. Maybe that will be included on Sonos later, perhaps?

Excited to see this. Also waiting on messaging and Drop in features. And of course music grouping with other Echos. Then I can pick up some more Sonos speakers, need a beam in 3 rooms and 2 subs, and two play 1s and a couple of play amps

Simple Radio, The Jazz Groove, Radio.com, Radio Paradise, and hundreds of skills are still not working, and announcements was their priority!?

I believe this was on Amazon's side, not Sonos'. I say that because the Ecobee Alexa enabled devices also got the announcements feature yesterday. It might be coincidental, but I suspect it was more a case of Amazon finally enabling the function on non-Amazon devices.